Many different types of sifting apparatuses, including sieves and screens, have been employed in the past to sift or sieve one type or size of matter from another. Screens or sieves have been used to sift sand, flour, and other particulate or granular matter to remove undesired or unwanted matter as well as to classify the matter being sifted by size. Such sifting apparatuses typically employ a perforate screen having perforations sized for allowing passage of particulate or granular matter having particle sizes smaller than the perforations.
One type of particulate or granular matter that needs frequent sifting is pet or animal litter, often referred to as cat or kitty litter. Cat litter comes in many different formulations configured to absorb excrement, including urine and fecal matter, in a manner that reduces order, minimizes animal contact, and facilitates disposal. Cat litter is made of a mixture of varying sized particles that typically have a maximum width or diameter of no more than about two or three millimeters. Commercially available litters include clumping litters made of granulated bentonite, such as calcium bentonite, quartz-bentonite mixture, or diatomaceous earth-bentonite mixture, and silica based litters made of silica gel or silica crystal.
Pet waste scoops, also referred to as litter scoops, have long been used to sift cat litter to separate pet waste containing fecal matter and litter that has absorbed excrement from unspent litter. An example of one such commercially available pet waste scoop is disclosed in commonly owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,578,807 and 6,976,661. The scoop has a handle generally in line with a concave or spoon-shaped perforate sifting body that has an imperforate endwall opposite a lip-containing open end. While this scoop has enjoyed considerable commercial success, improvements nonetheless remain desirable.
For example, because the handle is generally in line with the body but extends in an opposite direction, a user's hand gripping the handle can come in contact with the litter or even undesirably become soiled by pet waste. In addition, relatively small or narrow perforations formed in the body can become clogged such that unspent cat litter does not efficiently pass through them during sifting. This can cause a user to either throw away unspent litter with the pest waste or to have to shake the scoop to dislodge the unspent litter creating considerable dust. Finally, such a scoop is not conveniently stored by itself as it is releasably retained in a holder that stores it in an upright position.
It would be desirable to provide a sifting apparatus that overcomes at least some of these drawbacks.